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Minneapolis is the largest city in the U.S. state of
Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County. The city lies on
both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's
confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's
capital. Minneapolis has a total area of 58.4 square miles (151.3 km2)
and of this 6% is water. The city's lowest elevation of 686 feet (209 m)
is near where Minnehaha Creek meets the Mississippi River. The site of
the Prospect Park Water Tower is often cited as the city's highest point
and a placard in Deming Heights Park denotes the highest elevation, but
a spot at 974 feet (296.88 m) in or near Waite Park in Northeast
Minneapolis is corroborated by Google Earth as the highest ground.

U.S. Census Bureau estimates in 2007 show the population
of Minneapolis to be 377,392, a 1.4% drop since the 2000
census. The population grew until 1950 when the census
peaked at 521,718, and then declined as people moved to
the suburbs until about 1990. The number of African
Americans, Asians, and Hispanics was growing throughout
the past decades but that trend has now reversed.[38] As
of the 2005-2007 American Community Survey conducted by
the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of Non-Hispanic
Whites stood at 63.3% of Minneapolis' population, up
from 62.5% in the 2000 Census.[39] [40] Compared to the
U.S. national average in 2005, the city has fewer
Caucasian, Hispanic, senior, and unemployed people,
while it has more people aged over 18 and more with a
college degree.[41] Among U.S. cities, Minneapolis has
the fourth-highest percentage of gay, lesbian, or
bisexual people in the adult population, with 12.5%
(behind San Francisco, and slightly behind both Seattle
and Atlanta).

At the 2005-2007 American Community
Survey Estimates, the city's population was 68.1% White,
17.7% Black or African American, 1.3% American Indian
and Alaska Native, 5.1% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and
Other Pacific Islander, 4.7% from some other race and
3.0% from two or more races. 9.5% of the total
population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.[44]
41.2% of the total population had a Bachelor's degree or
higher.

Compared to a peer group of
metropolitan areas in 2000, Minneapolis-Saint Paul is
decentralizing, with individuals moving in and out
frequently and a large young and Caucasian population
and a low unemployment rate. Racial and ethnic
minorities lag behind Caucasian counterparts in
education, with 15.0% of African Americans and 13.0% of
Hispanics holding bachelor's degrees compared to 42.0%
of the Caucasian population. The standard of living is
on the rise, with incomes among the highest in the
Midwest, but median household income among African
Americans is below that of Caucasians by over $17,000.
Regionally, home ownership among African American and
Hispanic residents is half that of Caucasians though
Asian home ownership doubled. In 2000, the poverty rates
included Caucasians at 4.2%, African Americans at 26.2%,
Asians at 19.1%, American Indians at 23.2%, and
Hispanics at 18.1%.

Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents until
French explorers arrived around 1680. Nearby Fort Snelling, built in
1819 by the United States Army, spurred growth in the area. The United
States Government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell
their land, allowing people arriving from the east to settle there. The
Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present day Minneapolis as
a town on the Mississippi's west bank in 1856. Minneapolis incorporated
as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and
Chicago, and joined with the east bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.

Minneapolis grew up around Saint Anthony Falls, the
highest waterfall on the Mississippi. Millers have used hydropower since
the 1st century B.C., but the results in Minneapolis between 1880 and
1930 were so remarkable the city has been described as "the greatest
direct-drive waterpower center the world has ever seen." In early years,
forests in northern Minnesota were the source of a lumber industry that
operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the
west river bank had twenty-three businesses including flour mills,
woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton,
paper, sashes, and planing wood. The farmers of the Great Plains grew
grain that was shipped by rail to the city's thirty-four flour mills
where Pillsbury and General Mills became processors. By 1905,
Minneapolis delivered almost 10% of the country's flour and grist. At
peak production, a single mill at Washburn-Crosby made enough flour for
twelve million loaves of bread each day.
Loading flour, Pillsbury, 1939

Minneapolis made dramatic changes to rectify
discrimination as early as 1886 when Martha Ripley founded Maternity
Hospital for both married and unmarried mothers. When the country's
fortunes turned during the Great Depression, the violent Teamsters
Strike of 1934 resulted in laws acknowledging workers' rights. A
lifelong civil rights activist and union supporter, mayor Hubert
Humphrey helped the city establish fair employment practices and a human
relations council that interceded on behalf of minorities by 1946.
Minneapolis contended with white supremacy, participated in
desegregation and the African-American civil rights movement, and in
1968 was the birthplace of the American Indian Movement.

During the 1950s and 1960s as part of urban renewal,
the city razed about two hundred buildings across twenty-five city
blocks—roughly 40% of downtown, destroying the Gateway District and many
buildings with notable architecture including the Metropolitan Building.
Efforts to save the building failed but are credited with jumpstarting
interest in historic preservation in the state.

MINNEAPOLIS,
founded by Col. John H. Stevens, builder of the first house on the west
side of the Mississippi here in 1849-50, organized as a township May 11,
1858, was transformed in 1886 to the village organizations of Golden
Valley and St. Louis Park, excepting the eastern part of the township,
which had been comprised in the city area. On the original site of this
city, platting of village lots was begun in the spring of 1854 by
Stevens, to which other plats were added in 1854-55. The state
legislature, in an act approved March 1, 1856, authorized a town
government with a council, which was inaugurated July 20, 1858. The city
of Minneapolis was incorporated under an act of March 2, 1866, and its
first election of officers was held February 19, 1867. It was enlarged,
through union of the former cities of Minneapolis and St. Anthony, by a
legislative act approved February 28, 1872, and the new city council was
organized April 9, 1872. The city's present boundaries were established
in 1927; its post office was established in 1854.

The earliest announcement and
recommendation of this name was brought by Charles
Hoag to the editor of the St. Anthony Express,
George D. Bowman, on the day of its publication, November 5,
1852. It was then published, without time for editorial comment, which
was very favorably given in the next issue on November 12. Soon this new
name, compounded from Minnehaha and the Greek polis, "city,"
displaced the various earlier names that had attained more or less
temporary acceptance, including All Saints, proposed by James M. Goodhue
of the Minnesota Pioneer, Hennepin, Lowell, Brooklyn, Albion, and
others.

The distinguished parts borne by both
Hoag and Bowman in this opportune coinage of the name Minneapolis have
been many times related, with gratitude to Hoag for the bright idea and
to Bowman for his effective advocacy of it by his newspaper.

But a new claim, for the origination
of the name by Bowman during a horseback ride from St. Anthony to Marine
Mills on the St. Croix River was published in the summer of 1915 by a
posthumous letter of Benjamin Drake, Sr., a cousin of Bowman, printed on
page 1583 in vol. 3 of the late Capt. Henry A. Castle's History of
Minnesota. The circumstantial evidences of truthfulness there shown
for Bowman, as the first to receive the inspiration of uniting
"Minnehaha" and "polis" to form this city name, seem quite conclusive.

It is probable, however, that Bowman
had mentioned this idea to his friend Mr. Hoag, and that some days or
weeks later, when Hoag had entirely forgotten this, it may have come
again to his mind and been thought new and original with himself,
immediately before his writing the short article by which this name was
proposed in November 1852.

So each of these excellent early
citizens of Minneapolis may have honestly believed himself the favored
first originator of the city's name. They worked together unselfishly
and successfully for its adoption, and they seem equally deserving of
enduring fame for this service to the young city.

The claims for each are quite fully
stated and discussed in the Minneapolis Journal, by Hon. John B.
Gilfillan, January 7, 1917, and by the present writer a week later on
January 14.